Aggression in Societies

Watched a really interesting doco last night.  It was called "Stress: Portrait of a Killer".

Studies on how stress does actually damage the brain and body organs.  The interesting thing is scientists have found that stress actually creates plaque that clogs the arteries and leads to stroke and heart attacks!

One scientist had studied a group of baboons for 20 yrs.   He admitted that he actually didn't like the group he studied because leading the group were several Alpha males who were very aggressive to the females and younger males.  He regularly took blood samples and discovered the Alpha males had virtually perfect health, but the rest of the group had greatly elevated stress levels.

Returning to visit the group after a couple of years, he noticed the Alpha males were not present.  He found out that the baboons had discovered a local tourist resorts rubbish dump - because of the aggression and dominance of these males, they had taken all the food for themselves.  It was found that the meat had been infected, and these males all died.

Now comes the interesting bit!   Without these dominant, aggressive males, the females took over and completely changed the hierarchical structure of the group!   No longer any bullying or fighting, everything was totally peaceful, everyone was happy, and their stress levels had completely disappeared!   Even new males that later joined the group, said the scientist, even if initially aggressive,  after about 6 months of living with the group became calm and non-aggressive and fitted right in.

Now - does that not make you wonder about our own society?   If we could only get rid of the aggressive, dominant power hungry males running our world then maybe we too could reduce our stress levels and live a happy, peaceful co-existence with all species?   Certainly makes me wonder......